Tinfoil hats are back out amongst Louisiana legislators. Last week, lawmakers in the House passed a bill to ban “chemtrails” in the state. What are those, exactly? Oh, you know. The white lines left behind by aircraft that conspiracists insist are chemicals released by the government or other agencies for potentially nefarious purposes.
People’s primary concern with chemtrails used to center around using chemicals to control people. Lately, though, conspiracists have honed in on chemtrails as part of a plot to control the weather. Louisiana’s Senate Bill 46 aims to solve that by prohibiting the intentional dispersement of chemicals for the “express purpose of modifying weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight.”
As of now, there aren’t any actual fines involved with the ban. However, the bill would require the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to record chemtrail sightings and send data to the state’s Air National Guard. Thankfully, lawmakers were thoughtful enough to include exceptions to the ban for specific activities like firefighting.
While defending the bill, Rep. Kimberly Landry Coates told fellow lawmakers that “multiple people. Multiple groups, contractors,” are involved with the conspiracy. When asked by Rep. Candace Newell (D) what chemicals Coates has evidence of, she responded, “Barium. There is a few, some with long words that I can’t pronounce.”
Unfortunately for forward-thinking lawmakers like Coates, chemtrails have long been debunked as a bogus conspiracy theory. In 2016, a survey of leading atmospheric scientists “categorically rejected the existence of a secret spraying program.” Instead, these white streaks are simply contrails formed when emissions from aircraft engines interact with water vapor at high altitudes. Basically, as the Environmental Protection Agency summarized, contrails happen under certain conditions “for the same reason that we can see our breath on a cold day.”
Chemtrail conspiracies have existed for decades. However, MAGA enthusiasts helped drive its resurgence and give it further credibility in official discourse. Last August, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to a tweet about a “chemtrail pilot whistleblower”, writing, “We are going to stop this crime.” And during a town hall interview with Dr. Phill in April, Kennedy responded to a woman’s comment about chemtrails by pushing blame onto another agency and vowing to do everything in his power to stop them.
In addition to Louisiana, lawmakers in several other states, including Florida and Pennsylvania, introduced legislation targeting chemicals and geoengineering. Although it may seem silly, these laws may hinder efforts to address climate change. While defending SB46, Coates specifically accused the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of sending chemicals into clouds to reflect sunlight and cool the Earth.
“Wild and wacky ideas, with no basis in truth, are being raised and argued as if they were true — often with little or no media push-back,” Mark Shanahan, a professor at University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, told Newsweek. “The president sets the tone and so far, Donald Trump has encouraged and enabled the circus of craziness. While US government is more about ratings than effectiveness, this disconnect from reality is set to continue.”
SB46 passed Louisiana’s House with a vote of 58-32.
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